MAGNETO-OPTICAL RECORDING MEDIUM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magneto-optical recording medium where both the magnetic field for erasure and the magnetic field for reproduction can be made small. SOLUTION: This magneto-optical recording disk 1 has an underlaid dielectric layer 12, a reproducing layer 13 consisting of an alloy of rare-earth metal and transition metal, an intermediate layer 14, a recording layer 15, an auxiliary recording layer 16, an intermediate dielectric layer 17, a magnetic field generating layer 18 consisting of an alloy of rare-earth metal and transition metal, a protection layer 19 consisting of SiN and a thermally conductive layer 20 consisting of AlCr formed on a substrate 11 in this order. Before information is recorded on the disk 1, the initial erasure is performed on the layer 18 by applying the magnetic field having the same direction as the recording direction to the disk 1 while irradiating the disk 1 with a laser beam. Thereby, the leaked magnetic field having the recording direction is generated from the layer 18 when the information is reproduced.